‘I am grateful for all my problems... as each of them was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those yet to come. I grew in all my difficulties.’ – J.C. Penney

‘Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.’ – Mahatma Gandhi

‘Only dead fish swim with the stream.’ – Malcolm Muggeridge

‘It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.’ – Theodore Roosevelt

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." - Gautama Buddha

The lessons that Buddha preached from the above quote surely transgress specific religious, cultural, and ethnic association, and one can find such lessons in ANY culture, but I find that quote is the greatest thing I (try to, but numerous times fail to) live by.

"One thing you'll discover is that life is based less than you think on what you've learned, and much more than you think on what you have inside you right from the beginning." - Bret "The Hitman" Hart

This is a wonderful quote by the late great Carl Sagen. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to replace the word "science" with martial arts. It truly defines what I mean by an open mind as opposed to an empty head:

Carl Sagen wrote:

At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes—an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.

"At the heart of all good martial arts is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes—an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense".

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself" (Rudyard Kipling)

I love that - so much in fact that I've just put it on my office wall.